Integration
by Marshie01
Summary: What if? Hermione didn't go to Hogwarts at eleven, but struggled to deal with her magic alone in the muggle world where she was labelled a freak. A scared Draco stumbled into her life trying to escape the ongoing war and slowly they learn to depend on each other for the things they need; a safe-haven and knowledge. HG/DM. AU.
1. Prologue

Authors note: So, I've never written an M rated fanfiction, and I haven't written many fanfictions as it is, and I've taken down the ones that I did have written. I don't know if people will like this, but I'm a person who doesn't know what's going to be written until I'm in the middle of writing it, so I'm just going along with the story like everyone else. I don't have a schedule for writing, it will be updated depending on when I'm in school but I'm going to try it out anyways, since I've had ideas for some fanfictions but never got around to writing them. I'm giving a warning now, **this is not beta'd. I don't know if it ever will be. There will be mistakes in the chapters and I am horrible for switch my tenses from past to present. So you've been prewarned.** I only have the prologue and first chapter written, but for average chapters I'm gonna try for at least 3500 or probably more. We will see. I don't know how long it's going to be, or where the story is going. Your guess is as good as mine! Lol. Either way, I'm just testing this out to see how it goes.

Summary: What if? Hermione didn't go to Hogwarts at eleven, but struggled to deal with her magic alone in the muggle world where she was labeled a freak. A scared Draco stumbled into her life, they learn to depend on each other for the things they need; a safe-haven and knowledge. HG/DM. AU.

Disclaimer: I own nothing when it comes to Harry Potter since it all belongs to JK Rowling. I wish I owned it, because there would have been so many changes in it! But alas, I don't.

 **Prologue**

Hermione walked through the forest.

It was one that she knew so well, behind her parents' home. She spend more time in the protection of the trees than she did in her own home. She was at home in the forest normally but today she was panicking.

 _Where was he?_

He was supposed to come to the house right after he went and did whatever it was that he had to do when he was suddenly called away. This wasn't the first time, nor did she figure that it would be the last. She followed the worn path to their meeting place, where she had first stumbled upon him and she sat down on the slightly damp tree trunk to wait. She knew that it was going to be an issue when it was brought up between them, but she was worried.

 _More worried than she had been for anyone in her life._

He had slowly wormed his way into her life, with his rude ignorance and his innocent curiosity regarding everything about her. She knew that she cared about him, but in that moment she had realized just how much of her was reliant on him returning to their forest safe and sound. She loved him.

They had fought more than she had known anyone too; they were badly suited for each other. Him with his arrogance, pureblood customs and practically nonexistence conscious; while her and her lack of magically knowledge, eagerness to learn, bossy attitude and stubborn streak, they hardly found a middle ground on anything that they fought about and were too prideful to say sorry.

The relationship they had was built on his need to escape the world he belonged and her need for the knowledge of her powers. It was a relationship built on mutual gain when they finally began to trust one another, there were no feeling involved but…

She loved him.

Hermione hated herself for it. He was no good for her, she knew as much. When it came to the wizarding world, her ignorance made people like him very dangerous. But she had learned to trust him, to see parts of him that she was sure hardly anyone else had seen before. It didn't matter whether he reciprocated the feeling she had for him, she already knew the feeling of rejection from many years of being an outcast, but she knew that she couldn't let anything happen to him.

A loud crack echoed through the forest, an sign that Hermione knew that he was finally back from wherever he was. He would never tell her. She knew that it was something she would not approve of, but he was entitled to his secrets, just as she was entitled to hers. The fact that she loved him would be another secret that she would hold tightly without telling another soul.

She looked over at him, his platinum blond hair was messy and his fringe was hanging down on his forehead. It was usual that he was so unkempt looking, with his robes wrinkled and his shirt underneath untucked slightly out from his pants. He was panting slightly and brought his hand up to his hair, grabbing it and yanking it slightly in an irritated manner. _He didn't know she was there yet._ Hermione realized. It was strange for him not to constantly observe his surroundings.

Hermione felt her heart beat harder and her lungs get tighter, and could not understand how she didn't realize before now how strongly her feeling for the man standing in front of her had gotten. She scowled herself lightly, now was not the time to be acting like a love-struck foolish teenager. She needs to make sure he was alright and finally get some answers. Enough was enough.

"Draco?" She spoke softly, hoping that it wouldn't startle him. He was always jumpy after he got called away. He tensed slightly but otherwise didn't respond to her voice. She walked over carefully and placed her hands on his shoulders, trying to gently get his attention so that she could access his health. He spoke after a moment,

"I'm fine, Hermione. You know I just hate having to go back. I wish I didn't have too. It's fucking stupid. How could I have been so stupid? How could my father?!" His voice seemed to rise as his rant when on until he stopped and looked at her. He had a split lip that looked painful but otherwise looked fine.

"I can't do this anymore." He sounded so defeated that she did something that she had never done before. She threw her arms around his waist and held him tightly. She knew that he felt guilty for whatever he had done. As she had gotten to know him, she could see through the arrogance and had known that he was afraid. He needed her just as much as she needed him. He tensed again but slowly relaxed into her embrace, though he did not return the gesture. It was the first time that they had any real contact besides occasional hand holding when they were guiding the other person somewhere or the playful smacks on the shoulder Hermione would give him when he was rude or annoyed her.

"What happened? What can I do to help?" She knew that he would try to avoid the question, which was better than him ignore it all together like the irradiating git did sometimes.

"You know I can't tell you. I won't tell you." He spoke firmly but she let go of him and stepped back, looking him in the eyes.

"Draco Malfoy, you will tell me why you get called away and what happens when you do! This is ridiculous. It has been months of you coming and going; returning with injuries that you won't explain and look at the first time I met you! I was so sure you were going to die." She continued on her rant until he looked away from her, then she softened her voice. "I'm worried, Draco. I need to know you're okay. Even with you being an arsehole most of the time, every time you get called away, I worry about you like I've never worried about anyone."

Hermione held her breath and looked down at her shoes as she waited for him to respond. She didn't know what he would say to her at this point. She needed to know what was going on with him. The fact that she loved him was another issue, but there was the important factor that he was her only friend, and had grown to be her best friend in the time that she had known him.

"You're worried about me?" He sounded surprised, almost resentful of the fact, though she couldn't figure out why. He must have known already. She responded with a simple "Of course, Draco. Why would you think otherwise? After all this time you should have known."

"I had no idea. Hermione, it isn't good. You aren't going to like it and you'll hate me when I tell you. I don't want to tell you." He said, rubbing his face roughly with his palm.

"If you think it will affect me that much, I deserve to know. It would take a lot to make me hate you, you know I've never had anyone. Just tell me and get it over with."

"Okay," He muttered with a grimace, "I'll tell you everything, but promise to let me explain everything completely before you judge or ask questions."

"But-"

"Please? That's the only way I'll tell you. Promise me." He looked so defeated again, as if he would rather be anywhere but standing him front of her at this point. He watched as she studied him quietly before nodding slightly.

"Okay, I promise."


	2. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I own nothing when it comes to Harry Potter since it all belongs to JK Rowling. I wish I owned it, because there would have been so many changes in it! But alas, I don't.

Summary: What if? Hermione didn't go to Hogwarts at eleven, but struggled to deal with her magic alone in the muggle world where she was labeled a freak. A scared Draco stumbled into her life, they learn to depend on each other for the things they need; a safe-haven and knowledge. HG/DM. AU.

Warning!: **this is not beta'd. I don't know if it ever will be. There will be mistakes in the chapters and I am horrible for switch my tenses from past to present. So you've been prewarned. This is for fun, so I'm not worrying too much over it.**

Authors note: I figured I would upload the first chapter today, since it's the same day as the Prologue was uploaded and I don't really consider the Prologue anything special. I do have the second chapter basically written but not edited. You can probably expect another chapter on Sunday, which gives me time to write the third and maybe some the fourth chapter. I said I wasn't going to have a schedule but if I keep in the mood to write like I am now, I probably will upload once a week or something.

 **Chapter 1**

The young brown haired girl looked across the forest as she slowly lowered her book to her folded knees with a sigh. She was accustomed to being alone, for the most part. Hermione, a young girl named after a Shakespearian play was anything but interesting. She was never one that had a lot of friends, nor was she a child who her parents spent a lot of time with. As both of her parents were excellent dentists it caused them to leave her on her own for long periods of time but she knew a lot of her estrangement from her parents was caused by her odd tendencies. It was the reason that she couldn't make friends at her school, even at sixteen years of age she had never been able to make any lasting friendships with the mysterious events that would happen around her and the odd things she was able to make happen by just the wave of her hand. It was normally an accident, but when things happen that can't be explained, people shy away.

From a young age, she knew that she was able to make things happen when she was angry and her parents would have transfer her from school to school when the bullying became too much.

" _You freak! I can't prove you did it, but I know you did! I'll get back at you for this!" A young blonde girl wailed as she clenched her shirt together where it was ripped from the neckline._

 _Hermione sat on the ground in the play yard, looking up from where the blonde girl had pushed her. She couldn't understand how it had happened, she was walking and the next minute hands had slammed against her chest to knock her over. She felt the power inside her lash out quietly and without touching the girl, there was a ripping sound of fabric hitting her ears as well as a screech of pain from the other girl._

 _The force had cut through the shirt and lashed out at the girls pale skin underneath. It happened a lot, the power causing havoc around her and making problems. She couldn't control it and wished it did not exist more than once. The wet ground under Hermione was beginning to make her cold so she slowly pulled herself up of the ground, knowing that no one was going to help her up. She glared at the blonde girl, not knowing her name since she was trying to keep to herself for once, not wanting to transfer schools again. The girl's yelling had gotten the attention of the teachers and they were quickly making their way around the children that had slowly crowded around the two girls._

" _Who is responsible for this?" an older teacher asked. The ladies gray hair was slightly frizzy from the misty rain that continued to drift around them. Hermione looked down at her feet as she heard the children place the blame on her. There were rumors going around the school already, after her only being there for a couple months. The accidents would always follow her and be unexpected, never letting her have a normal life. She was grabbed lightly by the back of her shirt and pulled towards the school, knowing that her parents would be called in again, they were going to give her those awful disappointed looks and try to forget that it happen._

 _Hermione pressed her lips firmly together and decided that it was going to stop; she was going to figure out how to control the weird power that she had inside her, no matter what she had to do._

That memory would surface every now and then when she sat by herself in the forest, the day that she had decided enough was enough. It had been years since she started working on the pressure inside her chest, slowly after many attempts, she was able to force it out through her hands in small whispers. She learned to move things with gestures of her hands; she could change inanimate objects in to living things that would zip around her for hours before turning back into their original state, and throw little bolts of red light from her hand that would create dents in the earth around her. The bolts were only seen when she was frustrated. She had progressed so much from when she had begun, hardly able to make her hands light up. She could finally control the accidents from happening around her, with only the occasional mishap when angry or scared. She had wanted to try to find others that could feel the pressure and had the ability to do things with gestures, but she was afraid. The Grangers had always been worried and a little alarmed by their daughters abilities but had learned to avoid it. Hermione had always worried that one day their patience would reach it's end and they would have no interest in cleaning up her messes, she didn't know where she would end up.

She looked down at her English Literature book still sitting on her knees; she was trying study for examinations at her school. The school she was able to study at for the last two years, thankfully. The last thing she wanted to do was to fail and draw attention to herself more than normal. She began to read, only to discover that it was no good. She could not make herself concentrate on the words in front of her, and with a huff she slammed the book together and shoved it away from her. Slowly she lifted her hand and drifted it over a fallen leaf, grinning slightly as it shook and rose along with her hand, seeming to follow it up as far as she chose to bring it. Hermione looked at the leaf contently, even after everything that had happened because of the pressure, she didn't find herself to resent it. It was a part of her, no matter how much trouble it caused in her life.

She hardly noticed a chill drift over her as she continued to make the leaf float farther into the air, until it began to need more concentration to continue as the cold was beginning to distract her. She brought the leaf back to her hand and looked at it, noticing that it had become heavier from a frost that had suddenly developed over the edges. She darted her eyes around the forest, only to notice that her breath could be seen coming from her mouth in puffs. She couldn't understand what was happening, it was June. There were no frost warnings for this time of year. She jumped to her feet quickly and looked around when a black presence flowed into her vision. She could feel her hands shake as it seemed to glide over the forest floor, the dark cloth that was wrapped around its body was constricting and relaxing with each chilled breath it would take.

Hermione could feel the hairs on her body begin to rise in response to the chill that the creature seemed to bring with it, her lungs were fighting with every breath that she tried to take and a deep panic and dread seemed to set itself into her mind. The memories of every moment she would spend alone was dredging up through her mind and making its presence known. Every shove that she endured during her time in school, the mean comments and glares that would accompany a new school until the other children began ignoring her. She couldn't stop the thoughts from spilling forward and the thought of not being able to control her own thoughts made her snap out of whatever trance that demon thing had put her under. She shook her head and cleared her mind slowly before taking a step back and looking at the creature again.

"Stay away from me! I'm warning you!" Hermione's voice trembled with fear as the creature didn't even seem to register what she said. She shoved her hand out, the red bolt crashing from her palm with only a light tingle to remind her of what she did. It was one of the biggest bolts she had ever produced, the pressure of it leaving her hand almost made her arm buckle. It swiftly flew past the creature; her hand had been shaking too drastically to aim accurately at the creature. While the bolt was not able to hit it, it did cause the creature to hesitate for a moment, which was long enough for Hermione to begin running. She didn't slow down as she crashed through the forest and made her way towards her house. She broke through the tree line in the backyard with stick and leaves slapping her legs as she kept sprinting until she made it to the back door. Throwing it up quickly and flinging herself inside, shoving it closed behind her and looking for anything black creeping after her from the trees.

Chest still heaving from fright, she sank down to her knees as she watched; too terrified to do anything else. She wasn't sure how long she sat there until she snapped the lock shut and walked through the house on shaky legs. The darkness was surrounding outside as it became later in the evening and she curled up on the couch knowing that her parents wouldn't be home tonight, as they had gone on a month-long cruise for their anniversary. They trusted her not to do anything "reckless" while they were gone, as they had phrased it. _Yeah,_ she thought sullenly, _like being chased by a freaky monster._

She flicked on the television and laid her head down on the arm of the chair, breathing in and out trying to calm herself down. She stretched out her body, only to hiss slowly and look down at her leg to see a dark red stain blended into her pants. She stand up and grabbed the edge of her pants with her fingers, glancing to make sure the curtains in the living room were tightly closed before yanking them down over her legs. There was a deep cut above her knee and she tried to figure out where it had come from with the only conclusion being that it happened when she was running through the trees. She hovered her hand above the cut, breathing in as she concentrated on building up the pressure in her chest and curving it towards her hand for an outlet. She closed her eyes and pictured the skin on her leg mending together slowly, starting from the inner edge of the cut and slowly imaging it sticking together as she moved out towards the edge of her skin. The skin where the cut could be front was warm, and she opened up her eyes to see the skin stitch back together slowly and painlessly. Sometimes she couldn't believe that she had been blessed with such a unique gift.

After sometime she heard a low meow from upstairs in the house that was undoubtedly the grumble of her cat, Crookshanks. She knew that her parents weren't happy when she brought home the battered looking kitten that she found on her way home from school but after years of living with him, they had grown to ignore the cat's presence as well as they did hers. She knew that they thought he was a strange cat, which was more intelligent than he should have been and was rather... ugly. Hermione loved him all the same, as he was the only thing that was a constant support to her. She rubbed her eyes with her hand when she realized that she must of fallen asleep, though she couldn't figure out how she could sleep when she was scared for her life. It was daylight outside, the sun beginning to shine through the curtains and she looked to the clock to see that it was half past six. She had slept the whole night. She was surprised that Crooks left her to sleep so long; he was always awake early for food and attention.

She poured some cat food into his bowl in the kitchen and walked over to look through the glass back door. The forest behind her house seemed much more sinister than it ever did, knowing that the thing could be there somewhere floating around and waiting for her to return. She knew that she would have to make her way back out, as it was the only place that she felt comfortable practicing with her gift. _I am not letting some floating creeping thing keep me from my forest_ Hermione thoughts rang with determination as she stomped over to her parent's coatrack and grabbed her jacket. Shoving her arms through it haphazardly and making her way over to the door, she took a deep breath and threw it open. Crookshanks ran out in front of her, apparently finished his food and wasn't planning on letting her go alone. She walked towards the forest, following her cat closely in hopes that he would be aware of anything weird happening before she was and give her some kind of signal.

Panic seemed to fill her veins as she walked along; every shadow that she could see in the corner of her eye was making her jump with fright. She turned to continue on her path when she couldn't see her cat anywhere.

"Crooks?" She hissed slightly, hoping to catch his attention from whatever he had ran after. He always had a terrible attention span, getting distracted by this or that, it seemed to always lead him into trouble. Trouble that included being stuck in the neighbour's house for two days while they were on vacation and later getting trapped in their pool after the water was removed for the colder months. Clicking her tongue against the roof of her mouth trying to call him to her, feeling silly knowing that he never responded to it anyway, her shoulders dropped and she suddenly felt the weight of the forest and its dark corners closing in on her.

"I'm leaving you in the forest, Crooks! Maybe that creepy thing yesterday likes to eat cats, you never know!" She called out before turning on her heels and striding quickly back towards the house. She knew that Crookshanks could take care of himself, and had probably circled around to the house and was waiting for her to return.

She was relieved that she couldn't seem to see anything out of the ordinary in her forest. She was beginning to wonder if she had completely imagined the event the day before, but when she thought of the feeling that the creature had brought with it, she knew that she could never imagine something so horrible. She had never seen anything like that, completely covered in deep black cloth that was a striking conflict with the lush green of the forest, the way the cloth glides gently against the grass, piecing of the cloth were stringy and torn, as if they were older than she was. Which was entirely possible as she couldn't even begin to explain what the thing was, let alone how old it may have been.

She refused to think of it any longer. She had an examination coming up, and she wasn't going to waste her time with things that she knew she couldn't find the answers too. There may have been a time when she would have been unable to leave the mystery unknown, but after so many years of living with her unexplained powers, she had no desire to dig any deeper without knowing that she would find the answers that she was looking for. She would always hope for an explanation to what was happening with her life but for the time being, she was going to leave it alone. As long as the creature didn't make another appearance, she wasn't going to lose sleep over it. She was sure her powers would protect her. _If they will protect me from bullies, I'm sure that real harm won't be a problem._ Hermione thought as she continued walking home, almost reaching the house.

Crookshanks was waiting on the back step when she broke through the treeline. She glared at him as she walked towards him, muttering a sarcastic "Thanks a lot" as she opened the door and he dared past excitedly, running to his food bowl only to look up disappointed when he seemed to realize he had ate everything before he went outside. He seemed to glance over at her pitifully.

"There is no way I'm giving you any more food, especially after being left alone in the forest like that. You ungrateful swine." Hermione said causally as she walked towards the stairs to go up to her room. _I'm going crazy, talking to the cat._ She thought as she bounced up the steps. Either the excitement from facing her fears or the rush of knowing that she could have come face- to –face with the creature again had put her in a jittery and lively mood.

Grabbing her laptop from the bedside table and opening it up to reply to emails, which were mostly from online teachers for classes. These were the most ideal for her, as the teachers could not observe the strange things that go on around her; she found an email from her parents.

 _Hello Hermione,_

 _We just wanted to check in and make sure everything was okay with the house. And of course, yourself. We didn't have time to call when we had cellar service when the ship docked, so we sent a quick email. Anyway, your mother wanted to remind you that you need to water the indoor plants and call Aunt Julia to tell her that she can come for the visit she wanted, maybe tell her July 23th._

 _From,_

 _Your Mother and Father._

She sighed, knowing that her parents were trying to include her into their lives but they were still treating her as an afterthought. She loved them and was sure that they loved her in their own way, but the distance that continued to push them apart, especially as she got older, was maddening. She wished that they were a normal family who were out rightly loving and showed general interest in things that were going on each other's lives.

As much as Hermione wanted too, she couldn't blame them for their coldness and indifference. Their only child was so different than they were in strange and sometimes dangerous ways. They learned to keep their distance out of fear, and it was something that she could not blame them for.

She shut her laptop softly without replying and made her way downstairs, grabbing Crookshanks and hauling him into her arms as she dropped down ungracefully onto the couch before pushing her face into the cat's fur for comfort. He let the girl squeeze him tightly as she sniffled and tried to make the tears stop falling. She didn't even know what was wrong with her at this point. The coldness of her parents wasn't a new development and she had learned to block the unpleasant emotions when they came rushing over her but the events of yesterday seemed to bring forth many past emotions that she had avoided for years and she was crashing from the adrenaline rush of being in the forest.

Yesterday her body had seemed to crash in the way of a deep slumber, but today it seemed to need to release of tears. She held her cat tightly against her while she let the emotions surge forward and out of her system. Hermione hated to cry, and when she did, it was always in private. To her, it was weakness and too vulnerable for others to see. She sighed deeply and it seemed that Crookshanks realized that she was feeling well enough that he could wiggle out of her arms and onto the couch beside her. She laid back against the couch, bending her legs up before the cat plopped down beside her, yawning contently when she brought her hand down and ran it through his thick orange fur.

For two days in a row, she fell asleep on the couch. She silently hoped it wasn't becoming a habit as she felt herself drift off to sleep.

…oOo…

Days had passed since Hermione woke for the second time on the couch, and she kept returning into the forest without fail. Since that day, there hadn't been any sign of anything out of the ordinary happening in the trees. She knew that she needed to focus her efforts on school and place her powers in the back of her mind so she could concentrate. It was Monday morning and Hermione found herself walking down the familiar street towards her school, knowing that she only had days before she would be done for the summer, which would be spend working on online courses that will benefit her through university.

She was early, which was a normal occurrence for her. She liked to get there before everyone else, so she had time to get everything fixed and remain as quiet as possible; hoping that no one will pay attention to her. Hermione had been at the school for long enough that people usually did not pay her any attention, which suited her fine.

Slowly the classroom that she was sitting in began to fill with students as the time went on, and she just observed them carefully. She spend so much time being jealous over the normal lives of the other teenagers that she didn't dwell on it for long, just the small trickle of envy stirred in her chest at the sight of them. The girls twirling their hair as they talked to boys, or the boys grinning and wrestling with the other boys, it was something that Hermione had never experienced personally and doubted she would.

The teacher walked into the classroom and the lesson started though Hermione didn't pay attention to what was happening. She was already ahead in the class and wanted to finish an essay that was due the last day of classes. She was almost done, only the editing left and she knew that if she finished it now, she could go into the forest this evening and practice floating more objects. She wanted to attempt it with heavily items, to see if there was a physical limitation to how much weight she could lift with her powers and if it was more tiring than small things like leaves and small stones. With her parents being gone, she knew that she could spend as much time in the forest without pestering questions about school work. While her parents understood that she was responsible enough to take care of her work, they were constantly worried about having to move again. Although they would never out rightly speak it, they didn't want her to cause them to move again, they hated when she used her powers and would much rather that she ignore its existence completely.

Of course, she had attempted this when she was younger. The powers had scared her and she wanted nothing more than to get rid of them so she attempted to ignore them in hopes that they would go away. It didn't work. After weeks of not releasing the pent up powers, the Grangers had to move their lives across the city in attempt to run away from the speculation that Hermione's outburst had caused. There had been instances of mysterious events happening when she was around, like furniture catching on fire and peoples hair changing colour, but until the moment that Hermione was so angry at the children in the neighbourhood for teasing her mercilessly that she caused a car parked by the sidewalk to explode. No one was hurt during the explosion, but it proved just how dangerous her powers could be, especially when she refused to use them and let them build up. She swore to never let them build up and overflow again after that.

Hermione was just editing the last of her essay when the bell sounded out, interrupting the teacher who didn't realize that her time with the students was up.

"Tomorrow, we will finish up this chapter and begin review for the exams. I hope everyone has been preparing." The teacher spoke then swiftly walked out of the classroom and all the students were piling behind her in attempts to go to their next classroom early to chat with friends before class start again. Once everyone was gone, she made her way to her next class, which happened to be her favourite, English Literature. The teacher was boring and stuffy and the students were uninterested in the books being used, but to Hermione it was the best class taught and more than fascinating. She finished the last minute edits on her essay and put it away so that she could find the biology teacher in her office after Literature to pass in the essay. She could then go home, as Monday was only a two course day for her with the other classes she had decided to take being taken through online methods.

She took out her book and concentrated on reading it as the teacher walked in and began his lesson. She felt something cause her hair to move slightly, and when she looked up there was a small piece of rolled paper sitting in her curls. She grabbed it and yanked it out, glaring at the two boys sitting next to her as they grinned at her and snickered. Hermione didn't even know their names, as she had not bothered to learn them after figuring out that they were troublemakers. She tried to ignore them as much as possible, knowing that they were more annoying than potentially dangerous. She spent the rest of class huffing as she picked small rolled paper out of her hair as the boys threw it at her, the teacher ignoring what was happening in the back row as he continued on with his lesson. As soon as the bell rang, she grabbed her bag and quickly made her way out the door, ignoring the laughter coming from the boys as they cackled at the irritated young girl. Hermione signed as she made her way towards the teacher's offices. She knew she was overreacting, as they were being harmless but she wished that everyone would just leave her be.

She knocked on Ms. Layton's office door and waited until she heard the quiet teacher's voice telling her to come in. She preferred the biology teacher to many of the other teachers that were found at the school, she was the teacher that seemed to be the least judgemental towards her.

"I have my essay done for biology. I was hoping to pass it in today so that I didn't need to worry about it with my other examinations coming up." Hermione spoke as she dug through her bag and pulled out the small stack of papers.

Ms. Layton looked up from her computer to take the papers that Hermione was handing to her and smiled at her.

"Have you considered the extra credit projects that I told you I was letting some students do? I know you don't need it for your grade but I was wondering if you would be interested. It would look good on your university application."

Hermione bit her lip and considered her options. Up until now, she knew that she would probably say no, with doing extra courses during the summer, she didn't know how much time that she would have. Especially for non-essential extra credit. Hermione told Ms. Layton as much.

"Well, you know that you can work on it with whatever spare time that you need, and can always contact me through my school email with any concerns or even an extension into the next semester if you need one. You can let me know whatever you decide, we can be flexible with whatever time you need. I know you're interested in doing it." Ms. Layton smiled soft at the young girl. Knowing that she always had a hard time in school had made the teacher have a soft spot for the girl and she wanted to do whatever was possible to keep her occupied through the summer, knowing that the girl did not have any friends the take up her time.

"I think I'd like to try it. I don't know if I can make it work, but you're right. Biology does interest me and I would really like to try the extra credit project." Hermione said, looking at the teacher. She was happy to have finally made an absolute decision regarding the project. She just had to figure out what she wanted to do. "Do you have any ideas with what I could do for the project?"

Hermione left the teachers office an hour later, feeling no closer to knowing what she would do for the project then when she went there in the first place. She decided to forget school for the day and make her way home, she wanted to go into her forest and relax. It was the only place that she could forget what the real world was like. She made it home in record time, her feet moving quickly with anticipation of being able to work on her powers. They were a part of her, even if she wished that she could be normal. They were hers, and they made her feel powerful. She unlocked the front door of her house, relocking it behind her as she walked through and placed her bag down in the kitchen and grabbed an apple.

Munching on it as she walked through the house, she investigated what she could bring with her that was not too heavy that she could carry it through the trees but heavy enough that it was worth trying to lift with her powers. She finally settled on a heavy glass rose the size of her palm that her parents kept in the living room. She never knew what the point of the object was, but as long as she could remember it was always kept in the house on the end table by the couch. Whatever it was for, she would have it back in the living room before her parents even realized it was gone. She walked towards the back door and opened it up, holding it open for Crookshanks when she saw that he was running to come out too. She watched as he ran off in the direction of the neighbour's house, not knowing where he was going but knowing that he was probably going to make some trouble somewhere. She walked over to the tree line where the path could be seen, years of walking over the same path made the grass flattened and the way through the forest to her spot could clearly be seen.

Hermione spread out the blanket that she had grabbed and shoved into the bag she normally brought into the forest with her and sat down, pulling out the glass rose and settling it gently on the blanket in front of her. Tossing her bag aside, she looked at the rose and placed her hand a few inches above it. _Concentrate and relax._ She thought to herself and she took a deep breath in and let it out, willing the rose to move up towards her hand. She closed her eyes and waited, feeling the warm energy flow to the middle her palm before the cool feeling of glass touched her hand. She smiled and opened her eyes as she brought her hand higher and watched as the glass moved along gracefully with her. She was surprised that it took little more effort to lift the heavy rose as it did to float a simple leaf, but she could feel a slight strain. She considered what else she could lift, and if there was some kind of limitation that she couldn't surpass.

 _I couldn't possibly lift another person, or a house._ She considered the possibilities as she let the rose sink back down to the blanket. _I thought that the power was an extension of my own strength but if so, I would have felt a lot more strain to pick up the rose compared to a leaf. Wouldn't I?_

She heard a small commotion in the bushes and trees as a yowling cat came crashing towards her. She sat up onto her knees and grabs Crookshanks as he attempted to crawl into her lap, nicking her with his claws as he scrambled in fear.

"What is wrong with you?" She asked worriedly as she looked around the trees and climbed to her feet, keeping Crooks securely tucked into her chest. She couldn't see anything around her, nor could she feel the cold chill of the monster from before. After thinking that there was nothing that seemed to be after Crookshanks at this moment, she went head and began stuffing everything in her bag with one hand, keeping the cat from falling with the other. She moved her hand over the bag and it began floating next to her before replacing the hand back around the cat to keep him from falling. She walked through the path, her eyes darting along the trees to keep a look out for whatever had terrified Crookshanks so badly and concentrated on keeping the powers flowing towards the bag. It was more difficult without her hand to use as a guide but she made do with what she could at the moment, a small shine of sweat broke out on her forehead as she kept the bag in the air longer than she had ever tried, especially with the extra weight.

Hermione was only half way through the forest before she heard a whooshing sound and shadows seemed to pass over the forest. She stumbled to a stop before looking up to see the thing from before, except there must have been hundreds of them floating quickly above the forest towards the edge of the city. She crouched down, the only sound that could be heard around her was the whooshing of the monsters as they flew, Crookshanks hissing lowly and the plop of her bag hitting the ground when she forgot to keep her concentration on it.

As soon as she looked up towards the sky to check that the monsters were gone, she held Crooks tightly into her with one arm, grabbed her bag with the other and began to run. She didn't notice the way home until she could barely see the edge of the treeline shining brighter than the rest of the forest due to the sun that is uninterrupted by thick branches. She was so relieved she was almost there when a loud crack rang through the forest, a light beamed in front of her and she had no time to stop her moving legs before they catch in whatever the beam of light had left behind, sending her, the cat and her bag tumbling forward with a slight cry from her.

She sat up quickly to see Crookshanks continuing the run towards the house, leaving her behind without so much as a glance back.

"Coward" she hissed as she rubbed her arm that caught the most of her weight in the landing. She looked to see what she had tripped up in and her breath caught when she recognized the body shape of a man. Or a boy, maybe. She couldn't see his face; he had landed on his side with his arm covering his face. She couldn't place the clothes that he seemed to wear, long black robes that looked odd covering his body, though they were slightly open to reveal formal looking clothes underneath. Rather they would have looked formal if it wasn't for the large tares in the material and the darkening of blood that seemed to be soaking up into the deep navy coloured shirt and black dress pants.

 _Did he come from the beam of light?_ Hermione thought, confused. She brought her hand up to his shoulder and shook him slightly.

"Hello? Are you okay?" She asked and listening slightly but the only thing that could be heard from him was a light breathing. _Well, at least he's alive_. She thought as she looked him over. _I can try to heal what I can, and then call an ambulance._ She went to work checking him over and with a quick glance at his face to reassure herself that he was unconscious, she was struck by how handsome he was. She had never seen someone look so unnatural and beautiful. He had hair that was so platinum blond that it was almost white, it was messy and there was blood on the side of his hairline from a small cut. He had clear skin that was almost too pale with no blemishes marring his perfect features. The straight lines of both his nose and his sharp jawline were striking.

Hermione rolled her eyes at her own thoughts; of course she would be distracted by a handsome boy. She didn't even know where he came from or what happened for him to be so torn up. She glanced again to look at his face before pulling one of the tares in the side of his shirt to reveal a nasty wound that was not long, but seemed quite deep. She placed her hand gently over the wound, feeling the heat coming from his body but ignoring it while she summoned energy from within her chest that shot out to the middle of her palm. She had never healed anyone besides herself and couldn't imagine what would happen if she couldn't get him fixed up so that she was sure he wasn't going to die at any moment, if he was even close to death. The cuts were deep, but to Hermione they didn't look exactly life threatening.

She kept her hand over his wound for a moment, thinking and concentrating on what she wanted to happen before she slowly moved her hand back to see that the wound was nothing more than a pink scar on his side. She smirked a little to herself before moving on and gently lifting each tare open so that she could heal the wound underneath. She worked for what seemed like hours before she started up to heal the cut along his hairline before freezing, staring wide eyed into a pair of eyes that reminded her of the colour of liquid mercury. They seemed to shimmer as they looked over her with curiosity. _Oh god, how long was he watching me? I shouldn't have helped him!_

They continued to stare at each other before he opened his mouth and spoke, his voice sounding rough as if he hadn't spoken for years.

"Who the hell are you?"

Hermione felt the indignation swell up inside her as her temper rose. _How dare he!_

"Who the hell am I? Who do you think _you_ are! Maybe a polite thank you would be better for you to say considering I could have just left you here lying in a pool of your own blood!" Hermione felt her cheeks flush as she glared at the boy. _He could be a little nicer, all things considered._ She watched as he struggled to sit up before giving up and sinking back down to the ground. She shuffled back a little to give him some space and could hear him muttering quietly to himself.

"Where am I?" He asked after a moment, she watched as he struggled again to sit up before she moved a brought her hand to his shoulder to try to help. He shrugged her off before glaring at her hand as if it had personally offended him in some way. She signed and watched him struggle more before she spoke,

"You're in a forest just outside of London. Why don't you just let me help you up? It would be a lot quicker considering you're too weak to do it yourself." She knew as soon as she said the words that he would be offended. _Boys._ She thought as she rolled her eyes and watched him glare at her again. He took a moment to look at her before nodding reluctantly and letting her move to help him sit upright. He seemed to be straining with the effort so she assumed that he must have more wounds than the few that she was able to heal on his upper body.

Hermione had so many questions that she wanted to ask but assumed the strange boy wouldn't answer them anyways. He didn't seem very pleased to be talking to her at all.

"Do you think you can walk? My house isn't far from here and I can see what I can find. Maybe I should all an ambulance for you. Do you think you need one?" As Hermione continued to talk, the boy seemed to regard her curiously.

"Ambulance? I'm sure I can walk. I need to get home." He said quietly, seeming to have been resigned that he needed her help for the time being.

"Yeah, an ambulance. The hospital isn't far away from here but I only have my learners so I can't bring you myself but it's too far to walk. If you really need to get home, I can call you a cab but I can finish bandaging you up if you can walk to the house."

He boy looked disgusted before signing, "I don't need to go to one of your hospital things. I'm fine." He tried to push himself up to stand before beginning to fall over again. Hermione grabbed him as gently as she could and ignored his hands as he attempted to push her away from him before leading him down the path towards her house. The boy had no choice but to let her pull him along slowly.

"You can go home later, right now you need water and some bandages for your cuts. And probably some Advil as well. You'll feel better when you have a lie down." Hermione said as she pulled the young boy slowly towards the house.

She couldn't understand where he had come from, but she was definitely going to find out.


	3. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I own nothing when it comes to Harry Potter since it all belongs to JK Rowling. I wish I owned it, because there would have been so many changes in it! But alas, I don't.

Summary: What if? Hermione didn't go to Hogwarts at eleven, but struggled to deal with her magic alone in the muggle world where she was labeled a freak. A scared Draco stumbled into her life, they learn to depend on each other for the things they need; a safe-haven and knowledge. HG/DM. AU.

Warning! : **This is not beta'd. I don't know if it ever will be. There will be mistakes in the chapters and I am horrible for switch my tenses from past to present. This is for fun, so I'm not worrying too much over it.**

A/N: Thanks to the people who have followed, favourited or reviewed this story. I didn't know how it would be received but I couldn't find anyone else with this type of story, so I thought I might give it a try. Also, I put the use to a laptop in this chapter. I actually have no idea what the computer world would have been like when Hermione and Draco would have been in sixth year, which is when this is going to be around. If people don't like it, I can try to change it to a PC or something. Anyways, thanks to everyone!

…PS. I was thinking of doing either some parts of what's happening on Draco's side, either at the end of the chapters sometimes or as a story companion. I dunno. I'm reworking everything happening in the wizard world, it has to be reworked because there was never a Hermione Granger at Hogwarts to help out Harry Potter.

 **Chapter 2**

Hermione pulled the door open and yanked the boy inside. By the time they had made it down the path towards the house, he was dropping with exhaustion. She couldn't imagine what could have happened to him, broken and absolutely beautiful. The intense colour of steel that could be seen in his eyes were now closed and he seemed to be completely focused on making his legs move with jolting steps, relying on her to steer them wherever they were going. It surprised her considering how hostile he seemed, but maybe it was because he was in pain earlier. _When was the last time he slept?_ She couldn't understand how anyone could let themselves get so tired and utterly depleted.

She led him over to the couch and he stumbled ungracefully into it, holding his head as he fell back on it and exhaled loudly. Hermione looked around to see Crookshanks sitting in the doorway that led to the hallway before turning back to the boy to see that he was breathing in deeply and calming, signaling his slumber.

She huffed lightly, thinking about the fact that she didn't know what she was going to do with the strange boy that was now in her house, the first boy that she had ever had over and it wasn't even by choice. _Well, not exactly the scandalous rendezvous that I always imagined._ She thought as she walked towards the bathroom to find the bandages and alcohol to clean the wounds that were too deep for her to even try to heal with her powers.

After gathering the supplies, she crept down the hall and back into the living room, finding that she was relieved that he was still unconscious. She didn't know how to react around him and found that she was feeling more flustered than confident when she talked to the young boy. She looked over his body again and started to pull the clothing away from his body, tugging the dark thick robes away from the centre of his chest and then opening his bottom down shirt to reveal his rather toned chest.

Hermione was surprised, as he looked more thin and lacking than another else when he was completely covered by the huge dark robes. Setting the information aside for future reference, she tipped the alcohol bottle against a cotton ball and began tapping it gently on the long cut by his navel. When the cold liquid touched his stomach, his body stiffened and the muscles in his stomach flexed but gave no other indication of feeling pain or being close to waking. She kept an eye on his face as she worked, not wanting to miss him watching her like he was before. She still didn't understand the look of disgust on his face when he saw her fixing him up.

She shifted up body up onto her knees so that she was leaning over him without pressing too closely too him before holding her hand above the wound on his head along his hairline. She felt the pull of the power as it reacted to her urging and watched in fascination as the wound closed like the normally do. Even after years of watching it happened for every injury she received, she was still amazed. When it was done, she pulled her hand back and placed it on the dark robes that were piled up on her couch. As she pushed herself up to her feet, she felt something hard under the robes before searching through them, turning them over in her hands until she discovered a small thin opening that resembled a pocket.

She bit her lip and poked her fingers into the pocket, feeling a stiff piece of cold wood sitting inside. She pulled it out and looked at it slowly. It was smooth and dark around the base, whereas the rest of it was a lighter colour. _It's a wand.._ Hermione's eyes grew wide as she looked over it and could feel the power inside her spinning around her arm and race to the tip of the wand, almost as if it was willing Hermione to let it spring from the tip. It had to be at least nine or ten inches long and seemed to be an extension of her arm. Hermione couldn't feel where the power in her arm stopped and the power in the wand began. _Why would this strange boy have this powerful wand?_

Ignoring the feeling that she was stealing, she tightened her grip on the wand and made her way into the kitchen away from the living room. If the boy woke up, she knew that he most likely wouldn't be happy seeing her with the wand he had hidden in his robes.

When she stepped into the kitchen, she let the power flow out and she used the wand instead of her palm to make the chair at the dining table begin to float up with hardly an effort on her part. She couldn't believe how much easier it was with a wand. _Is it magic? Could that be what has been inside me this whole time?_ Hermione wondered as she gently placed the chairs back down.

She continued lifting things around the kitchen and her excitement grew with each passing moment until she heard a shuffle from in the living room, and suddenly the boy was standing in the door of the room, peering curiously into the kitchen. Hermione had just enough time to twist her arm behind her back to hide the wand before his gaze fell onto her.

Hermione smiled brightly at him, unable to hide her enthusiasm. She couldn't help but feel grateful to him, that she could ask him about the wand and her power. Obviously he had some kind of power that was like hers, that was the only explanation for why the wand responds so well to her. He continued to look at her as if she was a dangerous animal that could attack at him at any moment.

"So what's your name?" Hermione asked, finally wishing to put a name to the face that she had helped fix up. He pursed his lips tightly and for a moment she didn't know if he would actually answer her but after a moment he said,

"Draco Malfoy." He seemed to watch her face closely to see if there was a reaction to her words but she couldn't figure out why. Her only reaction was to tilt her head and look at him.

"That's your name? It's odd, don't you think? I don't mean to offend you, of course but you have to admit that it isn't a name you hear very often. Isn't that a constellation or something? I'm Hermione Granger, by the way. Are you feeling better? Do you need anything?" She began rambling out of nervousness and he didn't seem interested in stopping her word vomit. Without the pressure of a life and death situation, she fell back into the shy girl that would hide behind her curls when boys would even seem to glance in her direction.

Draco smirked at little and Hermione narrowed her eyes at him, knowing that he was amused by her nervousness. The shyness that she had would be slowly outweighed by the annoyance she felt by unneeded confidence. She found that it reminded her a bit too much of the average bully that could be found on any schoolyard but he hasn't said anything out of line, and she knew she needed to keep her calm and not react to the condescending looks.

"Did I drop anything? Do you remember seeing anything that I dropped?" He watched her so closely that she was sure he could see the small fraction that her eyes widen. _He knows it's gone!_ Hermione thought as she scrambled to figure out how to explain why she had the wand that was supposed to be tucked away in his pockets.

"Umm... I'm sorry. I really am, Draco." She saw him wince slightly when she used his given name. "I found this and I didn't mean for you to wake up without it..." She spoke so quietly that she wasn't sure that he could hear what she said as she pulled the wand out from behind her back and showed it to him.

Hermione could see the anger flash in his eyes as the narrowed into slits, "Give that to me _... Now_ " He said, trying to control his voice. Hermione ignored him and held the wand a little tighter in her fist and brought it closer to her chest protectively.

"Where do I get one and what else can I do with it? Do you have any weird powers? I've never met anyone with the same powers as me before. Can you teach me anything?" Hermione was excited; she couldn't believe that she finally found someone who was like her. _He can tell me everything I need to know!_ She knew that it was a long shot, but maybe he could bring her to find more people who were like her.

He continued to glare at her, disgusted by her. Hermione couldn't understand why he would be, he didn't know her. They had never met before, why should he assuming to know anything about her that would make him disgusted by her.

Draco was still struggling to keep on his feet, Hermione noticed. He wasn't asleep for more than an hour and that wasn't enough time to regain any of the strength that he seemed to be missed. She sighed, ignoring the huff as she tucked his wand into her jeans pocket before walking towards him. She grabbed his bicep and pulled him along back to the living room. She could hear him muttering to himself, only the words "pushy" and "bossy" hitting her ears.

She ignored him, saying "If we are going to have an argument, you need to lie down. You're exhausted."

"I'm fine, if you would just pass me my wand, you pushy snot, I'll apparate out of here and you'll never see me again. Sound good?" Draco said as he sat down on the couch, looking around the room. Hermione could see him analysing every piece of furniture in the room like it was the first time he had seen anything like it.

"What's apparate? And no, you can't just leave! You're the first person I've met that can do anything special like me." She said, sitting next to him on the couch. Draco tried to shift away from her weakly but gave up when she shifted along with him, as if she feared he could disappear at any moment. If it took keeping his wand away from him, that's what she would do.

He studied her for a moment, "You don't know what apparition is? You're a shite witch, aren't you? You must be a mudblood, but I've never heard of one with magic that didn't go to Hogwarts. Did you decline to go? If you did, you really are stupid."

Hermione knew that she should be insulted, but she couldn't understand. _Witch... Magic... Mudblood? Hogwarts? He's insane. Hogwarts isn't even a word._ She knew that there were things that she didn't know when it came to her magic but she couldn't understand how he knew so much. She figured if it was called magic, that's what she should force herself to get accustom to saying. He seemed so confident when it came to talking about everything, almost cocky. She rolled her eyes and then considered the best way to make him tell her everything she needed to know.

"I'll make you a deal." She started, watching as he raised a delicate blond eyebrow at her. "I'll give you back your wand and help fix your wounds so that you can leave here as soon as possible."

"And what do you want from me?" He asked, and she smiled slightly, knowing that she would have helped heal him without any agreement but it helped if he thought she wouldn't. _What he doesn't know won't hurt him, I guess._ Hermione thought as she continued with what she was purposing.

"I want you to help me with my _magic_ and tell me everything I want to know about all these powers. You already seem to have the knowledge you need, you must understand how it would feel to have these powers and not know how to control them." Hermione stuck her hand out towards him after she had finished speaking, "Do we have a deal?"

Draco looked back and forth between her face and her outstretched hand, seeming to think it over with curiosity. Hermione was a bit upset, knowing that she had no way of making him keep the deal after he shook her hand and left. She was gambling here with a boy she didn't know, as this could be the only way she could get the information that she was waiting for whole life for. She watched him smirk, knowing that the whole time she had watched him since she stumbled onto him in the woods that he wasn't stupid.

He was more than likely thinking about the fact that she could in no way make him keep the deal after he had his hand on his wand. She squeezed her eyes together and was scrambling her brain to try to find a way to keep him tied to her long enough for her to get the answer. When she felt the smooth skin of his hand reach into hers and grasp it firmly, Hermione's powers seemed to respond to it. Her eyes widened as she felt her own power and a foreign power that she could only assume was Draco's own powers merging together. His own wide eyes looked over at hers as she tried to pull her hand away as he seemed to be doing the same but their hands seemed to be connected through an undetectable force.

Suddenly the powers faded as quickly as they had come. Hermione yanked her hand away at the same time that Draco pulled his and cradled it into his chest. Hermione could feel the slight buzzing that was coming from deep within her hand.

Draco sneered at her, seeming to snap out of the fright much quicker than she had. "What have you done?! An unbreakable vow? Are you bloody kidding me? How did you even do it?" He shouted as his cheeks flushed red with anger. Hermione didn't understand what he was talking about, her brain felt fuzzy and heavy. She must have overexerted herself with whatever an unbreakable vow is. She didn't make any vows, she couldn't understand what he was talking about.

"Unbreakable Vow? I was just thinking that I wanted to make sure you would keep your end of the deal. I can't be left ignorant anymore. I've been hoping for this for years." She said slowly, feeling dizzy.

"Well, don't worry about me not keeping the deal anymore. I don't fancy dying because of you." He said, covering his eyes with his arm as if he was hoping she would disappear. Hermione started at him in shock. _Dying?_

"What do you mean?"

Draco sucked a breath in between his clinched teeth before replying, "Whether or not you tried it, you idiot, you made us take an unbreakable vow. It's something that makes sure each participant in the vow fulfills their end of the bargain. So you have to return my wand and heal me, and in return, I have to keep coming here until you have all the information _you_ want. I got the shite end of the deal, it seems. If anyone doesn't fulfill the vow, they'll die. It's normally needs three people, there needs to be a bonder. Even now, I feel the urge to spill everything I can think of to you."

"You could die? I'm sorry. Can we break it? I never meant for this to happen!" Hermione felt guilt rise, she couldn't even be angry when she heard him call her an idiot. This was her fault; he had every right to be mad. "Can I just release you?" she said after a minute. "Say I've got all the information I want?"

"Do you have all the information you want?" He said with a slight drawl, looking at her as if he was bored.

"Well, of course not but I can just say it…" She huffed, not liking how calm he seemed.

"The first lesson I'm giving you, is that magic is all about intent. Just because you say that you have enough information, doesn't mean you actually mean it. When you shook my hand, you were pulling your magic with the intent to keep me around long enough for you to learn what you think you need to know."

Hermione couldn't believe it, she had actually forced this boy, who couldn't be much older than herself, to stay around and give her information that she had always longed for. She knew that it was wrong, but she couldn't help the swell of pride knowing that her _magic_ , as Draco called it, had helped her with something that she had always knew that she needed.

"I need to leave. I've been gone long enough, and if anyone noticed my long absence, they'll question me and that's not something that I can afford now, clearly." Draco said, mimicking her huff from before. He held his hand out expectantly, and Hermione bit her lip as she grasped his wand and placed it in the centre of his hand. She felt a sense of loss as the piece of wood was transferred out of her hand and into his.

She nodded slightly, before reminding herself that she couldn't be upset until he left. She wouldn't let him see how scared she was of him leaving and never seeing him again. She could feel the sense of loss for what he symbolized, a world where she wasn't an outsider. Where she could learn about her magic without fear of being isolated from everyone around here. The one thing Hermione wanted was to be a part of a world that she didn't have to hide the largest part of her personality, the thing that she loved more than anything about herself.

She watched as he stood up, more than a little shaky given his current state. "Don't I need to heal the rest of your wounds? You don't look like you're feeling better."

He shook his head slightly, "You can't do anything to fix this. These are the after effects of the..." He cut off in mid-sentence, catching himself. Hermione watched as his hand clenched around his wand.

"After effects of the… what? I'm sure if you just tell me what I needed to do, I could help." She said, knowing that she would take any chance to learn something else, even if it was just healing. She watched as he shook his head again, ignoring her and began to back a couple steps away from everything in the living room.

Hermione knew that he was going to leave, however he had come in the forest when he fell out of the light beam. She felt the words bubble out of her mouth before she could stop them, "When are you going to come back?" She could hear the desperation in her own voice but she couldn't help it.

Draco shrugged his shoulders before a loud pop sounded through the room. She could hear Crookshanks scampering somewhere upstairs, the sound must have scared him. The house felt large and unoccupied now that he had left and Hermione couldn't make herself stand from the couch. She brought her legs up to her chest and curled her arms around them.

 _Well, there goes my only chance to find out everything I needed to know. He was probably lying about that vow thing to get his wand back._ Hermione couldn't feel anything but the disappointment and sadness that rushed through her body. She felt as if her emotions were going haywire and she had no idea how to make them stop. _One good thing, at least there are others like me._ She couldn't be completely upset; she knew that there were others. If Draco knew as much as he did, he must have learned it from somewhere.

She jumped to her feet and ran upstairs to her room, grabbing her laptop from the bedside table. Bringing up a search engine, she typed in the words _Mudblood_ with nothing of note coming up. _I knew it wasn't a word!_ She thought as she backspaced the word quickly and typed in _Hogwarts_. She chewed on the skin on her left thumb while she looked down through the results. There was nothing that seemed to be helpful.

Exiting out of the browser, she moved on to her emails. There was nothing out of the ordinary that she could find. Her parents hadn't even sent her anything else since they emailed her asking about the house. She continued to look through things on her laptop until Crookshanks came barreling into the room and jumped up on the bed, almost landing on her laptop. She shut it gently and placed it back in its original spot. She had to be careful with it, knowing that she was only given it for her studies. They hadn't been on the market for long and it had taken her parents a lot of money to have it sent it. _Anything to keep me quiet and occupied, I suppose_. She thought as she stood up, picking up Crooks to bring him with her down in the kitchen to get food before it got too late.

Thinking back to Draco and everything that happened, she couldn't believe it. She hadn't seen him do anything with his magic until he left with a loud noise but the wand that he kept on his person was amazing. It made everything easier; she stretched her hand in front of her and lifted the chair. She hadn't even known that she could lift something heavy until she had tried it in the house.

Hermione had never made it a habit to do anything with her powers around the house, she didn't want to make it a habit and accidentally do it in front of her parents. She knew that it always made them uncomfortable but she couldn't help lifting things around the kitchen like she had done with the wand earlier while she waited for her food to be cooked. She could see that using her hand used more energy than directing the magic through the wand.

Deciding that she would let everything develop naturally, hopefully Draco would come back; maybe he wasn't lying about that vow. Hoping was all Hermione could do at the moment. If he did show up, she knew one thing that she needed above everything else.

Hermione needed a wand.

...oOo…

 **Hours Earlier…**

Draco watched from the end of the room as the Death Eaters stood around their Lord, knowing that he had failed to kill Albus Dumbledore in the Astronomy Tower before, and now he would be punished for Potter and his friends escaping the manor when they were brought in by the snatchers. It wasn't his fault Bellatrix had been all too happy to torture the Weasel so close to death that Draco wasn't sure if he did survive after they got away, he couldn't help but feel a ting of sympathy for his schoolmates, as everyone around Potter seemed to have an untimely death.

Watching one by one while the Death Eaters are punished and dismissed, he couldn't believe how far his father had pulled him into this life. Draco may not have had the nicest character traits but he wasn't evil. He couldn't understand what they were following, since he had never had any real interaction with mudbloods or muggles. He had spent some time outside of the wizard world, walking around the city of muggle London while they scurried around to get their shite done. They looked like wizards, without the robes and without the obvious magic. While they may be more primitive than a wizard, surely they were at least human to the point where they had feelings, hope and desires.

Draco couldn't think of them as cattle like all the others who followed his Lord did.

He looked over to see Theodore Nott step up beside him; he couldn't understand why he was here. He wasn't around when Potter was brought in, knowing that Theo was off doing some kind of mission for The Dark Lord with his father. _That must have been quite the family trip._ Draco thought, knowing that Theo's relationship with his father was as shaky as his own was with Lucius.

"Do you suppose he's going to crucio you?" Theo asked causal, as if talking about the weather outside the manor. Draco just shrugged as an answer.

Theo always seemed to understand that neither he nor Draco was meant for this life, while they both watched Blaise Zabini step up to The Lord slowly, bending at the knee. Disgust flowed through them both when they thought about the fact that the boy was once their friend, all through Hogwarts Zabini had been side by side with Draco and Theo, along with Pansy.

They couldn't understand what happened after The Dark Lord had returned, Zabini had been commanded to show his loyalty by killing his on again off again girlfriend, Pansy Parkinson. He showed no emotion as he tortured Pansy to the point of insanity before throwing a killing curse at her so powerful it had split her in half. When it had happened, Draco had ran out of the drawing room quickly before falling to his knees to throw up in the hallway as the tears flew down his pale cheeks quickly.

 _Draco dragged his hand across his face, wiping the tears away from his cheeks and vomit away from his mouth; he was able to make his body obey him long enough to stumble into the closest room that he could find. It happened to be the library._

 _He could see Theo sitting down on one of the uncomfortable chairs that his mother had bought more for the look than the homely feeling of sinking into a cushioned chair with a good book. The manor was full of things that were made for their look more than comfort; sometimes Draco believed that his parents were just that. They looked like Draco's parents but they were neither comforting nor nurturing like parents were meant to be._

 _Theo jumped up when he saw the state that Draco was in, something that he was not accustom to seeing. The blond was normally so composed, when it came to everyone in the whole group, he had always been the one that kept his emotions in check when it came to the horrors of this lifestyle that their parents forced them into._

 _Theo dropped the book and ran over to Draco, grabbing his arms to keep him from collapsing. He was partly sobbing, the breaths going into his lungs in jerky bursts._

" _P-Pansy... She's gone. Oh my god… Holy_ fuck! _H-he killed her, Theo. That fucking bastard killed her, I'll kill fucking him!" Draco was rambling and Theo could hardly make out the rest._

" _Pan's dead? How…? Where's Blaise, he would have never let that happen!" Theo pulled Draco towards the chairs and sits him down before letting his own body sink into one. Theo hears Draco mutter something, not catching what he had said._

" _What?" He asked, he needed Draco to repeat himself, he needed an explanation for what was going on._

" _He did it… Bla- Zabini, he killed her." Draco said, sitting without moving. He was staring at the floor, but couldn't see anything around him but Pansy's blank eyes when she died. He wouldn't call Zabini by his given name, he was no better than any other Death Eater, no better than an rabid animal needing to be put down. Theo was silent, more in shock than anything else. He knew that the Parkinsons were not as involved in the war as The Dark Lord would have liked, but the thought that they would offer up their only daughter for a rite of passage for another member was insane._ This whole world is insane... Insane and dark. _Theo thought as he brought his hand up to his mouth, chewing on the knuckle of his clenched fist. An odd habit he had picked up through the years after he had been first initiated into the Death Eater ranks._

" _We're going to kill him." Draco spoke with such conviction, that Theo couldn't help but nod. While he wasn't eager for mauling and killing, he knew that they were never going to be okay again. The group was split, the balance thrown off. One dead and the other now considered filth when it came to his friends._

" _We will figure out something, let's get a drink first. I certainly need one." Theo grabbed Draco by the arm and hauled him along while they made their way to his room, where a stash of firewhiskey was hidden._

Draco couldn't believe it had been years since it had happened, his whole life that he knew was robbed from him, everything good in his life had turned to shite. He didn't have good memories at home before Hogwarts like his other peers, he wasn't someone who could turn to his parents for love but that first day on the train to Hogwarts had brought three people in his life that were a constant reminder that he wasn't alone. They had gone through The Dark Lord's return together, promising that they would all be initiated so that they could stay together and watch one another's back.

 _Right good lot that did._ Draco thought as he watched Zabini drop to the floor from the curse. He had helped bring Potter in, along with Greyback. _Watching one another's back had still gotten Pansy killed… By one of our own, no less._

He was surprised to see that mostly everyone was gone, Greyback being the last to step up before he would have too. He should have known that Theo was only there to watch his back; they were more than family to each other at this point. Greyback's punishment didn't last long; he wasn't technically a Death Eater, as The Dark Lord considered half-breeds like werewolves to be almost as filthy as mudbloods. The only reason to keep them around for now was because they were more than a little helpful with the war, as their ranks and pure need to violate everything around them when they transformed, which was preferred in the war. The threat of being mauled by a werewolf and left to turn was more than enough to get people talking.

"Young Malfoy, come forward." Draco stepped forward slowly when he heard the voice that caused so much misery. He didn't know what The Dark Lord sounded like before he was reanimated, but he sounded more like a snake than anyone Draco had ever met. The words that The Lord would speak would sound much like an exhaled hiss than actual speaking. It always caused shivers up Draco's spine.

Reminding himself that he needed to mimic the other Death Eaters movements, Draco dropped to one knee suddenly when he reached as close to The Lord as he dared go. He ignored the pain that racketed through his kneecap when it hit the cold floor. He had no time to lower himself carefully; he wanted to get this over with.

He didn't hear anything come from The Dark Lord before there was pain coursing through his veins. He hated the torture curse, even after the curse had been lifted, it could be days or even weeks until the person was free of the tremors and nightmares. The force of the curse must have knocked him backwards; Draco was lying on his back. He had no concept of time while he was raked with pain, he could feel his clothes sticking to him with sweat and his heavy Death Eater robes were not helping the heat that seemed to course through his body.

He felt something smack into his chest over and over again, before moving and hitting his arms. He could feel the pain on his skin, but it was almost a relief, as the external pain seemed to balance out the internal pain from the curse.

He didn't know how long he had been repeatedly hit with both physical and mental attacks, but it stopped suddenly. Draco didn't move, he didn't think he could. He heard the swift movement of clothing as it swished. Draco could only assume, and hope, that it was The Dark Lord leaving him after his punishment.

He felt someone touch his arm, and he opened up his eyes to see Theo staring down at him wide eyes and scared. _It must have been longer than I expected,_ Draco thought as he closed his eyes again. They shot open and looked at Theo again when he heard Bellatrix's cackle coming towards the room. It was never good for her to find him wounded after a punishment from The Dark Lord. She considered him a stain of a nephew, and would always get a few curses in while he was weak. She would always say afterwards that it was to toughen him but, Draco knew that she was hoping that he would go insane so that they could have a legitimate reason to kill him. He had heard her conversing with her husband, Rodolphus about it one evening.

Theo wasted no time in telling him to apparate. He knew it must have been bad, how close he was to insanity when The Dark Lord was cursing him. Draco knew he would have to ask Theo when he got back, but trusted him enough to know that he had to get out of there.

He didn't know where he was and he couldn't find it in himself to care. He had probably splinched himself but with all the wounds he had already, what was one more? As long as he didn't leave an arm or a leg at the manor, it didn't matter. He was falling in and out of consciousness, he could hear someone talking to him slightly but couldn't find the energy to open his eyes look at them, let alone speak to them.

…ooo…

Draco was jolted to consciousness when he felt his skin heat up and begin to crawl. _A healing spell?_ He opened his eyes to see a young girl crouched over him. She was pretty, he supposed. He could see that the pile of hair was pulled up on her head in a bun with what looked like some kind of band, there were curls sticking out haphazardly, and her features were small. Her appearance wasn't the most interesting thing at the moment, as Draco observed her pull at his clothes to reveal another cut before placing her hand above it. He could feel the healing spell working on his skin, but the girl wasn't using a wand.

It didn't take long before she looked up at him, and he could see the color of her eyes. A few shades darker than her hair, they reminded him of cinnamon and firewhiskey. He couldn't help the rude impulse to ask who she was and before long she was glaring at him, practically spitting at him.

"Where am I?" Draco asked, trying to be more polite. He couldn't help but know he was lucky that he was found by a witch who could heal his wounds. He felt the annoyance well up when she called him weak. _Bloody bint doesn't know what I just went through; she would be feeling a little out of sorts as well._ He thought as he tried not to sneer at her.

He was so tired; he knew that he would never get far on his own. He grudgingly accepted her help to sit up and before long she was rambling on about things he had never heard of before then it struck him, she was a mudblood.

…ooo…

Draco woke sometime after and it took him a few moments to remember where he was. The girls couch, it seemed. He took a moment to look around the room, noticing now the obvious muggle things in the house. He didn't understand how half of it worked, which was fine as he didn't think there was much in the house that was interesting enough to bother learning how to work any of it. Knowing that he needed to get back to the manor, especially since he had no idea how long he had been out for on the couch, he felt around in his robes for his wand. Eyes widening had he came up empty handed, Draco began to panic. _A wizard doesn't just lose his wand!_ He thought as he heard movement out in the kitchen and knew that he would have in interact with the girl, since he didn't have his wand to just apparate away.

He walked in the room that she was in, the dining table seeming to drop back to the floor so slightly that he wondered if he imagined it. She supplied her own name without any indication from him that he wanted it, _Hermione Granger, how muggle._ He thought as he internally sneered at the name. He had given out his own almost as if instinct when asked, he had been raised a purebred wizard, he had his manners ingrained into him so that they were a part of his very being.

Draco couldn't help the small smirk that formed on his face when she seemed to babble incessantly out of nervousness, mostly talking about his name. _Do I make her nervous? Good... And the name Draco was a perfectly acceptable name for a wizard_ ; He then remembered why he had forced his body to bring him into the kitchen in the first place. He suddenly asked her if she seen him drop anything, surely she would have noticed if a wand had fallen from his robes while she practically hauled him back to her home.

Draco felt the fury race through him as he watched her scramble out an apology before pull _his_ wand from behind her back. The apologies that the girl – Granger was spurting were doing nothing to help the anger that he felt as he continued to see _his_ wand tightly clenched in her hand. Draco knew at that moment that she had no knowledge of wands, the intimacy that it takes to even _hold_ another person's wand, let alone transfer their own magic through.

He ignored her questions, since she was too excited to stop long enough for an answer and before long she was grabbing him and pulling him along again. He couldn't help talking under his breath, she was a pushy snot. Which was how Draco found himself sitting on the couch with her way too close for comfort. He wasn't fond of unnecessary physical contact and up until then everyone had respected it. _Maybe it was muggle thing,_ he thought as he answered her questions as well as he could, while still managing to add a few poorly administered insults. The girl had no reaction to the term mudblood, nor did she have any idea who he was by his name. Granger had no knowledge of the wizard world!

She wanted him to help her by giving her knowledge, making a proposition before sticking her hand out towards him. It was a shite deal on his end, all he got was someone to heal his wounds, which Theo or his house elf could easily do, but he knew that there was no way this little bint could make him keep his end of the bargain. He just needed his wand.

What Draco didn't expect is for their hands to be bound together and a stream of light to flow around their hands like a ribbon when he finally placed his hand in her own smaller one. _An Unbreakable Vow_ he couldn't stop the well of panic that grew in his chest. _What has she done?!_

He was almost vomiting he was so angry when the connection between them had finally died, and he could feel the urge to speak about everything and anything that he could think of. He didn't know if he felt better than she had no idea what she had done until he told her, and that she had wanted to take it back. Knowing that there was no going back, he felt resigned. He felt better when she finally placed the wand back into his hand, knowing that he could leave, even if he did need to return soon to help her.

He walked away from the couch and ignored her for the most part, shrugging at whatever she was saying as he pictured his bedroom at the manor before apparating away.

…ooo…

Draco walked as quickly as he could over to his wardrobe when he appeared in his bedroom. He slipped his ruined clothes off his body before looking for something else to shove on, not really caring what it was. He had to find Theo and quick. He needed to know what he had missed, it had only been a couple hours since he had left the manor but in that time, anything could have happened.

He snuck around the manor, poking his head into rooms as he went and tried to avoid any Death Eaters that may be lurking around. Most of them had gone home since The Dark Lord wouldn't request them so close after a punishment. It wasn't out of concern for their wellbeing but his own needs. He couldn't afford to fight a war with followers that could hardly stand. The Order would take them down quickly and then there would be no one to follow him into the final battle.

Draco finally found Theo in the kitchens of the manor, but he wasn't surprised that he was still here. Theo spent more time here than his own home, since it was the best way that they could look out for each other. That and Theo's father rivaled Bellatrix when it comes to the insane personality type. Theo left his food when he saw Draco standing in the doorway and they both made their way back to his bedroom, there was nowhere else in the manor they could talk in privacy. When The Dark Lord took up residence in the manor, the walls seemed to have developed ears.

When they reached his room, Draco shut the door and warded it, along with the wards that were already on his bedroom that only allowed him and Theo to enter. It had once included Zabini and Pansy, but they had been redone since then. Draco knew that he needed to get some answers and explain what happened while he was gone, so he started speaking first.

"How long was I tortured?"

Theo sighed, "It was close to two hours, I think. It only took Bellatrix and the others a little over two when they made the Longbottoms insane, so I thought you were gone. You were muttering and stuttering odd things. Where did you go after you left? You look better; I didn't expect you to be back so soon. I thought I would have to go looking for you."

Draco sat up and slowly told the story of what happened when he had landed in the forest, he was trying to remember every detail so that he wouldn't have to revisit the story again. It wasn't safe to be talking about it. He would probably be killed for even conversing with the girl, and she would definitely be killed. He told Theo that, so that he would know to really guard his thoughts.

"It would solve part of your problem if she was killed, you know." Theo said, thinking everything over. Draco knew that Theo wasn't saying it to be cruel, but it would be dangerous to try to give the mudblood information about the wizarding world. If the Dark Lord ever found out, he would be in 's alongside the Longbottoms.

"She's a stupid bint, but she doesn't deserve whatever The Dark Lord would do to her or Greyback when he was finished. She doesn't deserve to die. She doesn't understand what's happening in our world, she isn't a part of it."

Theo nodded, knowing that if they were going to make it work so that Draco wouldn't lose his life, either from The Dark Lord or the Unbreakable Vow, they were going to need a plan.

 **Current time…**

It was only a couple days before Hermione heard the pop of what she could only assume was Draco coming back. She felt the tightness in her chest that had been present since he left fade away. It had felt longer than only a couple days, feeling more like months as each day went by but she couldn't help but be glad that he had come back. Even if it was to keep himself from dying.

She had been relaxing in her room going over homework with Crookshanks sitting on her lap when she heard the sound of him appearing before she pushed everything off her lap excitedly. Crooks made an unhappy noise and she said an apology to him before racing downstairs to see Draco standing in the living room. Hermione couldn't remember a time when she was so happy to see someone before. She couldn't help reminding herself that it was only because of what he could offer, it didn't matter who he was or what he looked like if he could supply her what she needed at this moment, knowledge.

He looked over at her and rolled his eyes, seeming to mentally prepare himself for what he was going to have to endure. She just smiled brightly at him before muttering a quick hello and gestured him for to follow her. She watched as he did so reluctantly and they started to go into the forest. Hermione had decided that everything they should practice should be done in the forest. It wasn't like her parents would be gone forever and there was no way she could explain the strange blond haired boy that showed up out of nowhere that she had forced to help her with her magic.

She practically skipped along the path towards the spot she normally practiced her magic. It made her trip slightly when she thought about the fact that it was a place that she had never shared with another human, it was hers. Hermione hadn't even thought twice before leading him towards the one spot that had always been her escape and she couldn't help but worry it if was going to be a mistake when they reached the spot.

How much damage could this beautiful boy do?


	4. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I own nothing when it comes to Harry Potter since it all belongs to JK Rowling. I wish I owned it, because there would have been so many changes in it! But alas, I don't.

Summary: What if? Hermione didn't go to Hogwarts at eleven, but struggled to deal with her magic alone in the muggle world where she was labeled a freak. A scared Draco stumbled into her life, they learn to depend on each other for the things they need; a safe-haven and knowledge. HG/DM. AU.

Warning! : **This is not beta'd. I don't know if it ever will be. There will be mistakes in the chapters and I am horrible for switch my tenses from past to present. This is for fun, so I'm not worrying too much over it.**

A/N: **So I've edited the older chapters and siwtched them.** I added the older chapters together in pairs so that they're longer and I'm going to start making the chapters twice as long. **If you're already caught up with this story, the newest chapter will start in the middle of this one**. There's no real need to reread the older chapters again if you've already read them. I didn't change much besides a couple of spelling mistakes and few awkward sentences but it's all basically the same.

 **Chapter 3**

Hermione couldn't believe it was happening; she was sitting here learning about magic. After all the years of wishing that she could learn more about it, it was finally happening. They had been sitting cross legged for more than a few hours with Draco answering her questions in a detailed manner as well as adding in his own opinions as he saw fit. It had taken Hermione awhile to convince him to sit across from her, and even when he sat there, looking out of place with his hair groomed and his clothes that seemed to scream wealthy, he still managed to look nonchalant while sitting on the grass.

They slowly went through everything that Hermione could think of... What causes a person to have magic? What was supposed to happen for her to learn? So where was Hogwarts? How does no one in the normal world know about this magical place? A war? The topics had gone full circle, back to the word that had been spoken the day that they had first met.

"So, what's a mudblood?" Hermione asked, curiosity peaked from Draco's vague explanation of the war that was going on in the wizard in world. He sighed and ran his hand through his hair, messing it up slight from its overly groomed state. He didn't want to tell her, it wasn't something that was used in polite conversation. He normally wouldn't care but the fact that he knew he would have to spend time with her meant that he needed to at least get along with her for the time being.

"It's a term used for someone with dirty blood, a child introduced to the wizarding world born from two muggles. They aren't exactly thought well of in wizard society." Draco said, looking at the nails on his right hand as if they were suddenly interesting.

"Do most wizards think this way?" Hermione paused for a minute before speaking again, "My parents are both muggles, as far as I know. I guess that's why you called me a mudblood when we first met."

"Pureblood wizards still believe this way, it's the reason there's a war going on. One isn't considered well-bred if they are willing to conspire with muggleborns"

"Well bred? Are we talking about wizards or dogs?" Hermione said, sneering at him slightly though she couldn't place much emotion behind it. She had long grown indifferent to names and insults.

Draco held up his hands in defense, "I didn't say it was right. There are things that you couldn't understand; there are families that are better than others. Purebred families that have never been tainted by anything, only consisting of well-bred pure blood. Malfoy, Lestrange, Black, Avery, Carrow... these are only a few of the most well-bred families. I can't help that it's the way the world is."

Hermione considered it for a moment, "and what do you think?" She couldn't help but wonder what he thought, without the Purebred supremacy that he seemed to return to while they were speaking.

"Well, the Malfoy family is one of the oldest-" he started but was interrupted.

"No, _you_ as an individual. Not your family, unless that's honestly what you believe but you've been more open than you have needed to be with me."

Draco leaned back a little, studying Hermione for what seemed like ages before opening his month to reply, "I don't think they're completely wrong. I do believe that purebred wizards are superior to muggleborns. We have always had the magic in our families and have been marrying to make the strongest connections between each family. There have even been rumors that magic feels connections to their compatible partner, much like what happens when a young wizard or witch buys their wands. With all this being said, I don't believe that muggleborns should be restricted from their magic, nor should they be treated like cattle, as some people in the war would like." He stopped, already feeling like he had said too much. In this instance, Draco was being truthful, he couldn't understand many of the extreme views when it came to blood supremacy and until this moment, he had never had a reason to think deeply about anything happening to muggleborns, he had always assumed that what his father had said was correct. After watching what had happened to Pansy, he knew that not everything was black and white, and not everyone deserved their fate.

Hermione just nodded, he noticed that she did that a lot. As if she just quietly took things in and processed it on her own. She quickly started with another topic, one that she had been itching to ask about since the first night.

"How do I get a wand?"

Draco had to stop and consider it, "I guess I could bring you into Diagon Alley. I know Ollivander has gone missing but I think that I saw his shop open last month and-" he stopped and looked at her "and none of this means anything to you. Look, I'll bring you to get one sometime."

"Can't you just bring me a wand? Or maybe I can just practice with yours?" Hermione said, she wouldn't admit it to him, but she was terrified of confronting the world that she had been deprived from.

Draco seemed to sputter for a second, catch off guard. He couldn't believe she would even suggest... "For one, your wand has to choose you. It's not something I could go pick up for you and expect it to match you well enough for you to function properly with it. It's just... not done. And second, sharing a wand is more private than... sex. It isn't something that's just done. The intimacy of it all is something that you obviously don't understand." He shook his head, a faint blush rushing to his cheeks while he spoke as if he was talking to a small child.

"But I... I used your wand before." Hermione felt the blood pull to her cheeks, she knew that she was blushing but she couldn't understand why he hadn't mentioned it before.

Draco nodded when she spoke. It was true that she had been using his wand but he was not as bothered by the idea as he had been when it happened. _I guess that I got over it with time_. He pursed his lips, knowing that he would deny her if she asked again now that she knew what it meant. Though he was no longer bothered by the idea of her using his wands, at least the feeling was gone from when she used it before; he still wasn't going to allow her to make it a habit.

"You used mine, and it will never happen again, do you hear me?" He waited until she nodded for good measure but from the flush of embarrassment on her face, Draco did believe that she would respect his wishes when it came to his wand, though it crossed his mine quickly that he may be giving her too much credit.

He knew that in order to teach her everything she would want to know, that she would need a wand. Draco would never be able to explain a lot of the things that are involved in the wizarding world; he would be more capable showing her by example more so than explanation. And for that, she would need a wand. _Maybe next month, need to put that off as long as possible. Possibly find polyjuice potion. And a person who she could pose as._ Draco couldn't believe he was even considering it, if it was discovered by The Dark Lord that he was parading around with a mudblood, Draco knew he would be killed on the spot. Not to mention what his father would say if he found out, The Dark Lord may be the least of his worries.

Draco focused his attention back to Hermione and saw her looking at him, as if she was waiting for instructions on what to do next. It was where Draco was struggling most, to think of things that she would want to learn. She reminded him of a toddler, with no concept of the world around her and an unreasonable need to ask questions.

They continued to go through things that Draco could remember from his First Year of Hogwarts; the spells that they went through in Defense against the Dark Arts, the plants they interacted with in herbology, the animals they faced in Care of Magical Creatures. Draco was going through stories he can remember of his classmates, "… I bloody swear, the idiot blew up a pitcher of water on the table at Gryffindor trying to turn it into wine and glass went everywhere! He sent four kids to the Hospital Wing and destroyed a large part of the table."

Hermione laughed as she listened to him recount stories from Hogwarts, a universe where she should have been sitting at one of the tables in the Great Hall. She couldn't help but wonder who her friends would have been and what they would have gotten up too. Listening to Draco talk about these times made her feel sad even through the happiness; it should have been her life. She had also noticed that through the whole story time, he never talked about his own friends or anything that directly involved him. Hermione couldn't find it in herself to mention this fact to him, it was the first time since she met him that he seemed relaxed. He wasn't constantly looking over his shoulder and was actually _smiling_. Hermione couldn't think of anything in her life that made her body tingle like watching him be comfortable in his skin and smile, even if it was talking about the mistakes of his classmates during their years at school.

He had moved on, talking about how some kid in the same year as him named Potter had gotten himself almost killed and in two other situations had actually gotten other students killed.

"Killed? Like, he was actually the reason the other students were killed?" Hermione asked, she couldn't understand what kind of school Hogwarts was to let children be killed during the school year.

Draco nodded, neither looking upset nor happy about the death of his fellow schoolmates. Hermione could understand the way he felt, in a way. He talked about them like he was talking about a film that he had watched, not that he would understand what she meant if she told him that was what it seemed like. She was slowly figuring out that he ignored a lot of what she said about the muggle world, most likely out of ignorance. She wasn't stupid; she knew that he was most likely too proud to ask about things that she would sometimes talk about. He would look interested when she talked about things, like when she was trying to explain her laptop to him. She figured it would just be easier to show him sometime when she got the chance.

Hermione couldn't help but ask, "What's the story behind that? And who names their child Potter. That seems odd."

"Well, I don't know if he killed either of them directly, but they were killed _because_ of him. It might as well be the same thing. It was always one of the best reasons to avoid Potter, people die around him and if they don't die, they get injured. And his name is Potter, well... his given name isn't Potter, its Harry. It's a custom in the wizarding world to call acquaintances or well anyone that isn't a close friend by the surname."

Hermione laughed a little, "So people call you Malfoy? What happens if you and your father are in the same place? How do you know who someone is calling out for?"

"We're not uncivilized. We don't just _call_ out to each other; we walk up to one another quietly and address each other face to face." Draco's face flushed a little, almost like it was upsetting to think that he would act like that. "And yes, people call me Malfoy. It is my surname. The Malfoy name is one of the sacred twenty-eight. "

She laughed again, and watched as his face became a little more flushed. She thought that he sounded like something from the eighteenth century but now wasn't the time to point it out to him. When he talked of being… whatever it was he was a part of... he seemed so proud.

Hermione couldn't find it in herself to spoil anything that he was happy or proud, not when he was normally so defensive and broken.

…oOo…

Hermione walked into her house, feeling more tired than she could ever remember. She was disappointed that they had spent more the day just talking through things and not actually using magic but it was more than interesting to learn about the world that she had missed out on.

She was alone by the time she got back to the house, a loud crack echoed through the forest behind her. She had tried to convince Draco to come back to the house but he was adamant that he needed to leave. When she had mentioned how long they had been outside together, he had gotten fidgety and pale.

Hermione noticed that it happened whenever he talked about having to go home or even when his home was brought up. She had tried to get him to talk about his life, but he wouldn't open up about anything personal. The only thing she knew so far was that his name was Malfoy, which was apparently a big deal in the wizarding world, and that there was something going on in his life that he was having trouble dealing with. She could tell from the way that he flinched when she mentioned his home and he would become flighty whenever she would mention his family. She knew that she wanted to learn more about the history, and about Draco himself but he was so tight-lipped about himself.

She had tried to steer the conversation towards his family and his life multiple times but he would tense up and change the subject quickly. She yawned as she walked up the steps towards her bedroom with Crookshanks twirling around her ankles as if he was trying to trip her back down the steps.

She didn't know when she would see Draco again but she was hoping that it would be soon; she needed more though of whether it was of knowledge or this strange boy, she couldn't be sure.

…oOo…

Draco felt the rush of the apparition pull at his navel before he dropped on the grass outside the Manor. He landed on his feet ungracefully, it annoyed him that apparition was the one thing so far that he couldn't completely get the hang of. He would have apparated directly to his room to ignore everyone that The Dark Lord had lingering around the Manor but he was trying to find Theo.

He needed a plan to help Hermione, even though he still couldn't understand his need to help her, besides the Vow, he still had an intense need to help her with her magic. Draco knew that Theo would help him figure something out, but first he needed to figure out a way to get Theo to understand why he was willing to go through so much to help her.

He found Theo in the library, which was the second place, after the kitchen that Draco checked. He knew that Theo would be either eating or hiding away in the library reading. Theo wasn't a bad guy, but he did have a fascination with the dark magic books that Lucius Malfoy kept in the library. Draco didn't say anything to Theo as he walked down through the shelves of the library before coming to a stop in front of an unused section, looking through the selections before grabbing the newest edition and pulling it from the line of books. He blew the coating of dust and smirked lightly to himself before making his way back to Theo.

His friend raised his cold blue eyes from the book he was reading and perked an eyebrow at the book in Draco's hands but didn't say anything. Theo folded his book together and placed it on the table next to him.

"You went there? How's the teaching going, _Professor?"_ Theo snickered at his joke before looking at the book in Draco's hand again; watching as he clenched his fingers around the book in what Theo could only imagine was nervousness.

"You're nervous." Theo said, looking over Draco closely.

"I need to ask you something, I need to get her a wand. I need a plan and help." Draco said, trying to look more confident than he felt. He couldn't understand what was happening to him, he was normally confident and what some would call cocky, but just the mention to what was going on with that girl would stir his nerves.

Theo knew this wasn't like his friend, Draco had always been confident and … well if they were to actually admit it, he could be more than a little cowardly. If The Dark Lord knew that he was spending his time with a mudblood, willingly and didn't tell anyone right away to "get rid of the problem," Draco would be killed, most likely in the slowest way possible. But with everything going on, Theo knew why he did not instantly to The Dark Lord, Lucius or Bellatrix. They had seen enough death and Pansy had been the straw that had broken the camel's back, so to speak. When it came to the Order of the Phoenix, they weren't exactly innocent, killing for their cause the same as the Death Eaters had.

Draco held his breath, before speaking. "It's the Vow. I need to help her. Did you forget about that? I need a plan; she asked a wand so I need to figure out a plan to get her to Ollivander's... Do you even know if it's open now?"

Theo tapped his fingers against the arm of the chair he was sitting on before answering, "Yes, as far as I know. After The Dark Lord allowed Bellatrix to kill Ollivander for not submitting, she was ordered to find another wand maker but they were planning to put someone there for any new students who needed a wand. Anyone pureblood _,_ that is." Theo paused, before continuing again. "How exactly do you plan on bringing an unknown witch into Diagon Alley? It's full of Death Eaters and you're _Draco Malfoy."_

Draco knew this was where things could get dicey with his friend. He watched as Theo studied him closely and began to glare at him. Theo knew he was up to something, his friend wasn't stupid.

"See, I was thinking of a polyjuice potion. That gives us a month to figure out all the details." Draco said, looking at the book in his hands.

"Why not just buy it? It would save you having to sneak around to brew it."

Draco looked at him flatly, "And what could I possibly use as an excuse for buying it? With Diagon Alley covered in Death Eaters and what if it gets back to The Dark Lord? I may know some Legilimency but he would break me until I opened up… or died first."

"Ah," Theo blew out a gust of air before he spoke again, "Whose identity do you expect to use for this? You can't exactly use someone who could stumble upon themselves."

Draco began to pace in front of Theo, "Well, I was thinking and you could completely say no but I was hoping I could use your hair for it."

"My hair?!" Theo squawked. Draco snickered, he had never heard his friend make such a shrill noise and it was a funny sight. Theo was always the rational and calm one of the two of them, being described as cold by many of their classmates at Hogwarts. To see him so far out of his element was just what Draco needed, he began speaking before Theo could say anything when he noticed his friend opening his mouth. Whether he was going to argue or was just gapping from shock, Draco wasn't sure but he didn't give him a chance to speak.

"You can meet her, so she can understand how you act and you can just stay in my bedroom or the forest for an hour while we go to Diagon Alley… Will a wand work for her though if she's disguised as you?"

Theo was reluctant when he spoke, "It should, technically. It is her magic inside of a shell of my body but Draco, if you haven't noticed, I have a wand. And everyone knows it. I can't exactly politely ask for a new one."

"Yes, you can." Draco jumped in, "A couple of days before we do it, you can just say you lost your wand. Magic changes all the time, so you… she will be tested for a new one. I'll have enough gold on me that no one will question it."

"I haven't said yes." Theo said coldly. He had slipped his face into a blank mask after he had gotten over his surprise.

Draco was smirking lightly at him; he knew that he had him. He knew that Theo was interested in meeting her, especially after telling him about the wandless magic.

"Fine." Theo said, his voice resigned.

Draco grinned; his white teeth flashing in the light, making Theo compare him aloud to a shark. Shrugging slightly, he dropped into a chair beside Theo triumphantly and again saw Theo eyeing the book in his hands.

"I'm going to bring it to her whenever I go again." He said, looking rather sheepish.

"What's going on with you? This isn't normal. You've never been interested in mudbloods. Turning into Dolohov, are we?" Theo frowned as he said it, it was supposed to be a joke but even Theo could see that it was in bad taste.

Draco felt his face screw up in was he could only imagine was a disgusted grimace. Antonin Dolohov was a Death Eater who was known for taking muggleborn pets. They would never return to the manor dungeons as whole as when they left, sometimes missing larges areas of flesh or even limbs. Draco thought they were the lucky ones, having heard Dolohov talking to Greyback one evening about the ones that he kept. Draco shuddered and heard Theo mutter a quick "Sorry." It was as good as Draco would get from his friend so it accepted it easily. It wasn't that Draco cared much about what Dolohov was doing, but it was where Hermione would end up if anyone found out about her and that was one thing that she didn't deserve. Dolohov always wanted any muggles or muggleborns that made their way in front of The Dark Lord and Draco was sure that she would be no exception.

He sighed before answering Theo's earlier question. "There's nothing going on with me. I took a Vow, even if it wasn't something I intended on doing. Besides, having you ever wondered what would happen to mudblood who was stuck in the muggle world?"

"No." Theo answered bluntly and started at his friend before shifting his eyes down to the book that Draco had placed on the table before them.

It had been a long time since either of them had read _Hogwarts: A History._

…oOo…

Hermione spent the time cleaning the house; she had started upstairs in her bedroom before making her way through the rest of the house. Her parents were due to be home in little over a week and it had been at least two weeks since she had started spending time with Draco. It had been a couple days since she had seen him but she spent the time in between his visits practicing, cleaning and keeping up with her summer school work as best she could with everything that was going on. She needed to keep the house as normal as possible so that when her parents returned they wouldn't know something was different from when they left.

And cleaning was where Draco found her.

He crept into the house carefully, trying to see why she wasn't in the forest where she normally met him. Over the past week they had met three times and Hermione had mentioned that her parents would be back soon from their boat tour… she had called it a cruise.

Draco wasn't sure when they were supposed to be back but figured he should be careful sneaking into the house, just in case. What Draco didn't expect to find was a red-faced Hermione laying on the floor in her lounging room with a black stick in her hand that directed light under the couch as she tried to squeeze close enough to look under it.

"What in Merlin's name are you doing?" He asked, he couldn't help but snicker when she shot up onto her hands and knees to look up at him in surprise.

A look of relief came over her face when she saw that it was only him before she became annoyed as she scrambled to her feet, "You scared me! How did you even get in here? I locked the door last night before I went to bed and haven't gone outside yet today."

Draco smirked and raised an eyebrow at her, "I forget how muggle you are sometimes. Wizard, remember? I can unlock a simple door. What exactly are you doing?"

"Crooks sometimes loses his toys under the couch and it's too heavy for me to move on my own. I was looking with a flashlight to see if I could see any that I could reach." She explained, frowning slightly when she looked over at the couch.

"Why not just use magic to lift it? I've seen you lift things windlessly." Draco asked, crossing the room to collapse in the chair opposite to the couch.

"You've seen me lift small stones and leaves, I can't lift anything heavy like this." Hermione explained, she was surprised when Draco reached into his robes before pulling out his wand and waving it effortlessly at the couch, making it float up far enough that she could peer under it and grab the few toys that Crookshanks had poked away.

"Why did you come here anyways?" she glanced over at the clock that was on the wall to see that it was well past when they would normally meet. She would normally go into the forest at four in the afternoon and if he didn't show up after fifteen minutes she would know that he wouldn't be there that day. It wasn't the best system but it was the one that they had fallen into over the past weeks. "I am so sorry; I didn't realize that it was so late."

She sat down on the then lowered couch and looked at him. No matter where he found himself, he would always look almost _too_ put together. He was raised that way, she had discovered during one of their talks, when they were talking about the way pureblood wizards were raised. Even sitting in a chair in her living room, he looked formal. His back was straight and his ankles loosely crossed. Hermione tried to find something out of place, even a hair or a wrinkle in his robes but he was more perfect than anyone she has ever seen. The only thing that bothered Hermione was…

"I hate those robes." She blurted out, not thinking before she spoke aloud. It was more than true though; the deep black robes that he wore sometimes were more than a little intimidating. She preferred the deep blue robes that he sometimes wore that made his silver eyes shimmer, or the black robes that were… just not as black. No, these robes were intimidating, Hermione decided. She had only seen them twice, the day he had appeared and today.

"My robes?" he drawled. Draco raised an eyebrow at her statement. She couldn't help but wondering if he practiced raising it, but she knew that with how much he did it, he would have perfected it by now.

Hermione nodded, "They remind me of a creature that was in the forest the day before you showed up." She couldn't believe she hadn't mentioned it before, especially with all the time they had spent in the forest, with everything that was going on it had slipped her mine. It had come to the forefront of her mind when she had focused on those black robes that seemed to taint the colour of everything around them.

Draco looked confused before asking, "Creature? What did it look like?" Surely she couldn't have been speaking of a regular animal.

Hermione looked a bit pale as she spoke, "I was out in the forest practicing when everything felt cold. I didn't notice at first but there was this thing floating around that was wearing robes that were so black that I hadn't seen anything like it before. I threw one of those red blasts—"

"Stupefy." Draco filled in, ignoring the way that she huffed at being interrupted before continuing.

"Yes, that and then I ran."

"You haven't been able to perform that windlessly since we've been practicing." Draco mentioned, even though he knew that it was highly irrelevant at the moment, it was the focus of his thoughts.

"I didn't know I would really do it, especially so hard. I was panicked."

"Draco nodded before speaking again, "It was a Dementor."

Hermione hadn't even considered that the thing that had stripped her of her happiness and warmth had been linked to the wizarding world; she couldn't imagine why all these events that were linked to her being a witch would have happened so close together in time.

"A dementor?" she looked over at Draco, taking note that he was looking quite pale. Well, paler than he normally did. _Did this boy ever go out in the sun?_

"They guard Azkaban. It's where the Ministry of Magic keeps their prisoners." He said, looking at something on the wall behind Hermione's head. She knew that Draco tended to do this when he was thinking or worried. At least she assumed he was worried when he did it, she could never completely tell and it didn't help that he would never speak of anything personal.

"Have you ever been there?" She asked quietly but Draco gave her a startled look.

"Been there? Are you kidding? It's one of the worse places on earth. Downright torture. You need to do something especially evil to end up there."

Hermione looked annoyed at the misunderstanding, "Of course I didn't mean to ask if you've been imprisoned there, you idiot. Just if you have ever visited there? You seem nervous, that's all."

He narrowed his eyes at the insult but let it drop, "My aunt spent time in there."

Hermione looked over at him, "Past tense? You said that they had to do evil deeds to get into that prison. I guess I'm sorry for your loss."

"My loss? What are you talking about?" He looked surprised at the muggleborn girl sitting across from him. No one would ever apologize for anything that happened to Bellatrix if they knew her. He knew that he certainly wouldn't.

"Well, obviously she died. They don't let evil people out, do they?" Hermione watched as Draco laughed bitterly, "No, they don't let them out, but that didn't stop her from breaking out."

"She escaped? What did she do to be locked up in the first place?"

"That, Granger, you really don't want to know." He said as he stood up and walked over to a black satchel that he had set down after walking into the house. He looked through it before pulling out a rather large book that he proceeded to pass to her as she looked at him with her wide expressive eyes.

Draco watched as she ignored the world around her in favour of the book. He had never had someone act so interested in anything he had given them since he had given Pansy chocolates during their second year of Hogwarts before Zabini had claimed her. Hermione read the title, running her fingers along the letters before opening it up. Draco opened his mouth to make a remark about bookworms to save his dignity for bringing a book just for her when a sharp burning flowed down his left arm ending at his dark mark, making his teeth clench tightly and a low hiss escaped from his mouth as he let the air leave his lungs.

Hermione glanced up at him from the book quickly, when she heard the sound, only to see Draco looking at his arm and pulling out his wand. She watched as he muttered a quick goodbye before vanishing with a crack. She looked past where he left to see the black bag there, still open from where he had been searching through it to find the book in her hands.

She stood up and lightly placed _Hogwarts: A History_ on the table next to the couch before walking over to the bag. She sat down, folding her legs under herself and paused when her hand was placed on the lip of the bag. _This is such an invasion of privacy… It's so wrong but…_ before she could talk herself out of what she knew was highly inappropriate she shoved her hand in the bag. She knew that if she wanted to look at anything she needed to do it now. When Draco would leave quickly like that, he wouldn't normally return for a couple days but as he had left his bag, she didn't know when he would be back.

Hermione grasp a vial with an orange coloured thick liquid inside, she kept pulling out all the vials she found, placing them alongside one another in a line up; Aside the orange liquid, there was a purple one, a brown one and a clear one.

She took a chance on the clear one to uncork it, bringing it up to her nose only to be disappointed when there was no odor. Having no clue what any of them were, she set it back down and reach inside the bag again before pulling out two letters. She immediately placed the one sighed from Draco's mother down, it was too personal to her, though she believed that she was being overly sentimental considering her hands were already unfolding the other one so that she could see it was from someone named Theo.

 _Draco,_

 _The Dark Lord has sent me on another mission. I figured I should mention it so that you can check on the potion and add the needed ingredients. I left it in your room and warded the door. I don't think I will be gone long but if you need me, just send me an owl._

 _Oh, and be careful. I kept an eye on everything happening at the manor before I left and Bellatrix is starting to sniff around since you've been gone more than usual. You know she will go crazy if she catches wind of dirty blood._

 _Cheer mate,_

 _Theo._

Hermione looked at the note in confusion, not understanding everything that was being said. Bellatrix? What an odd name but Draco wasn't exactly normal name either. _Maybe everyone from the wizarding world have odd names._ Hermione though as she looked back at the paper, noticing the name Theo before discounting her assumption. She knew that the dirty blood must have been her, she had Draco explain what a mudblood was but for what reason would anyone really care if he was talking to her. And why would this Theo person have to keep an eye out.

Hermione huffed before putting the note down, she had more questions than before after reading it. She wondered if she should bring it up to Draco but thought better of it.

Hermione then looked back at the letter from Draco's mother before shaking her head and looking farther into the bag. There were three crumpled up pieces of paper in the bottom of the bag. She unfolded and straightened the first one as best she could before examining it, there was a boy moving on the paper, looking back at her with striking green eyes. His face was narrow and worn, as if he hadn't slept in a long time and there was a mess of black hair sticking in all directions on his head. The words _WANTED: Harry Potter. Wanted for offenses against the Ministry. Wanted Alive. Reward on Capture._

Hermione pulled out the second sheet to see that it was like the first one but the black haired boy was replaced with a red haired boy with blue eyes and scattered freckles that coloured his cheeks and nose. _Ronald Weasley,_ the paper named him. The only slight difference was that the paper specified _dead_ or alive.

 _Potter? Wasn't that who Draco didn't seem to like that went to Hogwarts with him?_ Hermione couldn't help thinking back to when Draco was telling her about his times at Hogwarts and how people around Potter would die.

Hermione grabbed the last piece of paper, straightening it out to see a photo of a rather large group of people. Under the photo, the words said _WANTED: Order of the Phoenix. All members are known criminals at large. Wanted Dead or Alive._ She couldn't understand why Draco had these, or what these people did. It seemed rather barbaric to place out a kill order on all these people to the general public.

She glanced back at the picture of Harry Potter before picking it up, looking him over again. He was rather attractive even with his hair looking uncombed and the large bags under his eyes from exhaustion. Hermione couldn't help but wonder why Draco disliked this boy so much; she could hear the disgust in his voice every time he was brought up. She stuffed everything back into the black bag as best she could, trying to remember exactly how it was placed away in the first place. Maybe Hermione would have to ask Draco about him again, just to see what happens.

…oOo…

"What's the whole story on Harry Potter?"

It was a week later and Hermione sprung the question on Draco as soon as he popped into the forest with a crack and shimmer of air.

"Potter? Why are you wondering about him?" He asked as he looked over to see Hermione sitting with her legs folded under her and his bag sat on her lap. He knew that he had left it when he had been called to a meeting a week ago, but decided to leave it there for now. There was nothing important in there and he had extra potions at the Manor if he needed them.

"I looked through the bag, and I saw the pictures of Harry Potter, Ronald Weasley and a group photo of a bunch of people. I know that you don't like Potter, but I was just wondering why. And why he's wanted, the only one who seems to matter if he's alive or dead." She said, looking more confident than she felt. She had debated for the whole week on whether she would tell him that she looked through the bag or not, but in the end, she assumed that if he thought that anything in the bag was too important for her to see, he would have taken more time to remember to take it with him when he left.

Draco looked at the ground around him, seemingly deciding that it wasn't too dirty for him to sit on before gracefully folding himself onto the ground. Hermione couldn't believe how nervous he seemed, she had never seen him act as fidgety as he picked at his fingernails and looked down at the ground. He signed, wetting his lips before speaking.

"There's a lot that you don't know about the wizarding world, especially when it comes to pureblood customs and how badly some families want to stay _pure_ " He spoke the word with disgust. "Right now, there's a war going on in the wizarding world against a person who should be dead… who _has_ died but has since returned. If he has his way, another born with muggle parents would most likely not survive if he succeeds."

"I don't understand why you're telling me this, I asked about Harry Potter. Is he the person who wants muggleborns dead?" Hermione asked, watching him carefully.

"No, he isn't. Apparently, when he was a baby, he survived our killing curse and defeated The Dark Lord. Now Harry Potter is leading the Order of the Phoenix, a group trying to keep the muggleborns safe." Draco wouldn't look at her, choosing instead to study the trees around him as he waited for her to ask the question that he was dreading to answer.

"But why would there be wanted posters with their names on it if they're trying to help? This story doesn't make much sense." She asked slowly, trying to wrap her head around everything.

"The ministry is corrupted, it always has been but lately it's been worse. They have actually begun arresting muggleborns on the charges of stealing magic from pureblood families." Draco snorted to himself, even when he was consumed with dislike for muggleborns, he never did believe that they had stolen their magic. That seemed silly, even to Draco as a child.

Hermione was quiet for a moment, "But you and Harry Potter don't get along. You think that he's an idiot… Are you not a member of the Order of the Phoenix group?"

"No, I'm not." Draco said, exhaling quietly and chancing a look at her. She was staring at him wide eyed.

"But you're involved in the war, when you first showed up…you looked like you had been in some kind of battle."

"I wasn't in a battle, it was punishment, but I am involved in the war." He paused for a minute before beginning again, "I'm not on the side that favours your… kind."

"My kind? Draco, are you actually on a side trying to make it so that people like me are killed?" Hermione knew that she needed to keep calm and try to think rationally but she couldn't help the feeling of betrayal and hurt that welled up inside her. _Has he just been toying with me all this time?_ She could feel her eyes start to tingle as they began filling with tears. She knew that she had to get away, she was not crying in front of him.

"Yes, I guess I'm on that side, but it's not exactly by choice! If I believed in the things that The Dark Lord stood for, I would have killed you when I first met you." For the first time since meeting her, Draco tried to initiate contact with her by grasping her arm gently, only to have her yank her arm from his grasp as soon as he made contact. He watched helplessly as she stood to her feet quickly and began walking away from him towards her house.

"Hermione—"

"Just… leave me alone for now." She spoke so softly, he wasn't sure he had heard everything she had said.

He couldn't help but wonder what he could do to fix it. It wasn't like he could leave her alone for too long, the Vow would never allow it.

He needed to know how to fix it… He would ask Theo.


End file.
